Deployment
NaoTrac at Rotterdam
Brain Navi Biotechnology (founded 2015 in Zhubei, Taiwan by the surgeon Jerry Chen) makes NaoTrac, a neurosurgical navigation robot that combines a robotic arm with AI-driven non-contact frameless registration to position instruments along pre-planned trajectories for procedures such as biopsy, tumor ablation, external ventricular drainage, stereo-electroencephalography, deep-brain stimulation, and endoscopy. It is a genuine surgical robot with a real robotic manipulator, and it has cleared its gating events across multiple jurisdictions, with Taiwan FDA approval in July 2022, a European CE mark, and US FDA 510(k) clearance in June 2025 as a stereotaxic guiding device. NaoTrac has the highest autonomy of the niche surgical set in this wave, since its AI-driven non-contact frameless registration is autonomous, but that autonomy lies in the navigation and registration step rather than in autonomous cutting or tissue manipulation, and the first-autonomous-neurosurgical-navigation-robot framing is a regulatory and marketing superlative. The registry records it at commercial, leaning early-commercial, maturity: it is cleared across Taiwan, Europe, and the US but remains a small startup with a limited and unverified installed base. For category context, Brainlab's Cirq robotic arm is a separate and legitimate surgical-robot candidate deferred to a follow-on wave, where the entity would be scoped to the Cirq arm rather than Brainlab's broader navigation-software portfolio.
NaoTrac by Brain Navi · Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /deployments/brain-navi-naotrac-rotterdam.md
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/robots/d5d6945d-e591-4b7e-ac36-68b2a342ddb6
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Footage
Brain Navi footage of its NaoTrac surgical-navigation robot for neurosurgery (presented at AANS 2025). Brain Navi markets NaoTrac as an 'Autopilot' and autonomous-navigation robot; this is the maker's claim.
Erasmus MC in Rotterdam became the first site in the Netherlands to use the Brain Navi NaoTrac neurosurgical navigation robot, in July 2024. The inaugural procedure was a brain tumor biopsy performed in under an hour. Erasmus MC is one of Europe's largest university medical centers. The Netherlands deployment is part of Brain Navi's ongoing global expansion from its Taiwan base.
Key facts
- Operator
- Erasmus MC, Rotterdam
- First procedure type
- Brain tumor biopsy
- First procedure date
- July 17, 2024
- Procedure duration
- Under one hour
- Trust tier
- Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified
- Last updated
- 2026-06-12
- Model
- NaoTrac
- Company
- Brain Navi
- Location
- Rotterdam
- Status
- operational
- First seen
- 2024-07-17
- ID
d5d6945d-e591-4b7e-ac36-68b2a342ddb6
Sources (2)
- First procedure in Netherlands with NaoTrac surgical navigation robot is performed at Erasmus MC Rotterdam · https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-procedure-in-netherlands-with-naotrac-surgical-navigation-robot-is-performed-at-erasmus-mc-rotterdam-302199128.html · 2024-07-17
- Brain Navi Completes First Procedure in Netherlands Using its NaoTrac Surgical Navigation Robot · https://www.surgicalroboticstechnology.com/news/brain-navi-completes-first-procedure-in-netherlands-using-its-naotrac-surgical-navigation-robot/ · 2024-07-17
Methodology: Verified · 2 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-06-12
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-06-12
Maturity + lifecycle
Maturity stage: commercial
Lifecycle: active
Architectural position
Cohort: surgical
Sources by quality tier
- 2
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for NaoTrac at Rotterdam.Common questions
- What is the NaoTrac deployment at Rotterdam?
- NaoTrac, built by Brain Navi, is recorded as a deployment at Rotterdam on the DEPLOY registry. Brain Navi operates the deployment directly.
- Who operates NaoTrac at Rotterdam?
- Brain Navi, the manufacturer of NaoTrac, operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.
- When did the NaoTrac deployment at Rotterdam go live?
- The deployment is recorded as starting July 17, 2024 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.
- Have there been incidents at the NaoTrac deployment at Rotterdam?
- No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.
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